


Someone I Used To Know

by Rumaan



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Need A Date, Not Seen Each Other Since We Were Kids, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 17:56:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13013112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rumaan/pseuds/Rumaan
Summary: Sana needs a date so it's a good job Yousef moves back to Oslo just in time to help out.





	Someone I Used To Know

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Yousana Exchange for @x-matter. It's been great getting to know you over the past month or so. I hope you like your gift :)
> 
> Title from Adele's When We Were Young

“What’s up with you?” Elias asked as Sana came into the kitchen, flung her bag on the table and slumped in a chair at the table.

“I need a date and I don’t know where to find one.”

Her brother turned bemused eyes on her and asked, “A date for what?”

“For Eva and Jonas’ wedding. Everyone else in the wedding party has a date except me. I’m going to look like a total loser and so many people are coming from Nissen including Ingrid and Sara.” Sana frowned darkly for a moment thinking about Sara and how hard she’d made Sana’s life at the end of year two at Nissen. 

“The two bitches from that whole bus incident?”

“Yep. They are going to love seeing that I’m the only one without a date. I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb. Poor little Sana. The girl nobody can love.”

She hated how close to the bone her last words cut. She was beginning to think she was unloveable. How come everyone else seemed to find a partner so easily and Sana was still here, lonely and single. When she was little, she had definitely planned on being married by now. She’d loved the idea of find love early on and settling down into marriage by the time she was twenty and building a life together with that one special person. But here she was, twenty-three and not even able to find a date to one of her best friend’s wedding. The comments from various aunts and uncles about how old she was getting also didn’t help. It seemed every Eid or family celebration these days was an obstacle course where she tried to leave a conversation before her inevitable unmarried state was brought up. No one did this to Elias and he was twenty-five.

Speaking of her brother, he let out a snort of amusement at her words and said, “Come on! You’re studying to be a doctor. No one else is being as ambitious as you when it comes to a career so fuck anyone who thinks you’re some kind of loser.”

“That’s easy for you to say. No one gets on your case about being single or judges you for not having a date to a wedding or anything.”

Elias eyed her carefully. “It’s really going to bother you being the only one without a date, isn’t it?”

“Well duh!”

“Why?”

“Because everyone always acts as if I’m some kind of sexless being. You wear a hijab and suddenly you’re not an actual person but a piece of cloth and if you do get married then it’s some arranged shit to your cousin or something. For once, I’d just like to shut people up and make them realise that I’m just as good as Eva or Noora and that I deserve romance and love, too.”

“Of course you do and anyone who says any differently is just a dick and you should ignore them. None of your actual friends think that so why worry about what others think?”

Signing, Sana recognised the truth in his words and wished she could just brush people’s misconceptions about her away. However, she knew from experience that she couldn’t. She did care about what others thought, rightly or wrongly, and she might hide it behind a hard exterior, but other people’s preconceived ideas about her would niggle away at her until it consumed her thoughts and would send her into a spiral of anxiety and stress. 

“I know, but it’s not that easy to dismiss. I shouldn’t care and I shouldn’t let it get to me yet I do.”

Elias made a noise of acknowledgement. “How about taking Adam or Mikael with you?”

Wrinkling her nose up, Sana said, “It wouldn’t work. They’ve been together for years and people from Nissen know it thanks to how many parties you’ve all been too.”

Just then Elias’ phone pinged and he looked down from where he’d been staring at the wall contemplatively. Picking up his phone, he grinned and said, “I’ve got who you can take! It’s perfect, too. No will have met him.”

“Who?” Sana asked, her eyebrows knitting together as she tried to work out just who Elias could know who would do this.

“Yousef. You remember Yousef Acar, right?”

Time seemed to reverse as her heart thumped at the name almost as a reflex. Yousef had been Elias’ best friend growing up and when she’d turned twelve, she had developed the biggest crush on him. A crush that had no sign of dissipating when he and his family had moved away a year later. She had been heartbroken for months, sure that her soulmate had been snatched from her before she’d even gotten the chance to grow up a little and tell him how much she loved him. Her  _ du’a _ had contained supplications for him to come back to Oslo for at least a year afterwards, but he never had. Over the years, she had forgotten all about him - the boy she had been so sure, aged twelve, that she would marry.

“Yeah, I remember Yousef.”

“He’s back in Oslo now. Got a job here and everything. I bet he’d take you.”

“Oh, I’m not sure,  _ akhi _ .”

Elias grinned and said, “Why? Still got that crush on him?”

“What? You knew about that?”

Snorting, her brother said, “You didn’t think you were subtle did you? You used to go bright red every time you saw him and were barely be able to stutter out a word around him. You went from talking to him like you would to me to suddenly not being able to talk in front of him at all. Of course we all noticed.”

Sana felt her cheeks grow warm and she said in a horrified voice, “You mean he knew, too?”

“Oh yeah. We used to tease him about it.”

Embarrassment flooded through her system and Sana closed her eyes wanting to sink through the floor. Sure it had been a decade ago, but there was nothing like knowing that the crush you had secretly harboured on your brother’s best friend hadn’t in fact been secret at all. And that wasn’t even the worst thing. The very worst thing was finding out that he knew and had suffered mockery because of it.

“Definitely don’t ask him now then!” she exclaimed.

“Too late. I already texted him”

“Elias! How-”

But anything else she was going to say was cut off as his phone rang and Elias’ grin grew positively wicked as he said, “Hold that thought. It’s Yousef.”

 

\----------

 

_ Elias 16:37 _

_ Hey, I need a favour. _

_ Elias 16:38 _

_ Remember my sister?  _

_ Elias 16:38 _

_ She needs a date for a wedding. _

_ Elias 16:39 _

_ Can you help her out? _

Yousef frowned at the series of texts from Elias. Sana needed a date? It was hard to imagine his best friend’s little sister needing a date. Probably because he still thought of her as twelve years old and not the medical student that he knew she now was. When Elias had told him that Sana was in med school, he couldn’t help but conjure up a vision of a tiny little girl with voluminous white coat dwarfing her and a slightly too long stethoscope hanging around her neck. However, what Sana had lacked in itches, she had always made up for in spunk so even his twelve year old vision of Sana was a kickass medical student. She had never been afraid to challenge any of them in the back garden for a game of basketball and more often or not she would kick their asses. However, he couldn’t help but also remember that for his last year or so in Oslo, she’d become a little starry eyed around him and her witticisms that she had previously had no problem directing his way had dried up. 

It had been strange seeing the softer, shier side to Sana Bakkoush when he had been so used to the snarky little sister who had always been so quick with comebacks against Elias, but he had never made a big deal out of it or looked to tease her. He’d been there himself a couple of years earlier when he’d developed a crush on one of his older sister’s friends so he knew just how agonising the feelings could be at that age. So he’d continued to treat her as he always had and pretended that he hadn’t noticed how tongue tied she’d suddenly become around him.

However, apparently she now needed a date and Elias was asking him. He couldn’t help but be intrigued.

Deciding that this wasn’t something that was going to cleared up quickly via text, Yousef called his friend. 

_ “Hey.” _

“Sana needs a date?”

_ “Yeah, something about a wedding and not wanting to be the only single person in the wedding party. You game to go and pretend to be her boyfriend?” _

“And she knows you’re asking?”

_ “She knows.” _

“And she’s fine with you asking me?”

_ “She’s desperate.” _

There was the sound of a scuffle on the other end and he could hear an exasperated Sana in the background. 

“Thanks man! That makes me feel really special.”

However, it wasn’t Elias voice that answered him. 

_ “Yousef?” _

“Sana?! Hi!”

_ “Please ignore my dumbass brother. He’s just being stupid.” _

“So you don’t need a date?”

_ “Well...no...I do. But don’t worry about it.” _

Her words were the perfect excuse for him to get out of having to say yes or no. All he needed to do was laugh it off, say okay and hang up the phone. However, all he could think about was little Sana and how she’d always rolled her eyes when Elias had asked her to make them all tea, but would do it anyway and would often add ghoriba or chebakia to the tray that she would bring in to them. For all that she’d had a sharp tongue, she had a soft heart and if she needed a date then it must be for a reason.

“I can go with you if you want.”

There was a brief pause.

_ “What?!” _

“If you need a date, I’m happy to go.”

_ “You are? Why?” _

He winced at her question. It was valid because why would he want to take a girl he’d last seen a decade ago to a wedding as a fake date.

“I’ve just moved back to Norway and it’s a good excuse to meet more people.”

There was the sound of a delighted laugh down the line that had him smiling along with it. 

_ “Well I don’t blame you for that. If Elias was my best friend, I’d want to meet more people too.” _

“So if you need a date then I’m around.”

_ “And you’re sure you’re not just being polite.” _

“Nope.”

_ “Oh. Okay then. If you don’t mind then would you come to this wedding with me?” _

“Sure.”

_ “I’ll get your number of Elias’ phone and text you. Oh, and thanks, Yousef, it’s really nice of you to agree to this.” _

“Anything for you, girl.”

He cringed at his words and how extra they were but luckily she didn’t call him out on it and said bye just as if he’d said something normal. A minute later, there was a ping on his phone and a message from Sana popped up. He couldn’t help but grin. This was possibly the weirdest thing he’d ever done, but he had a good feeling about the situation.

 

\---------

 

Chris was already waiting in the coffee shop when Sana arrived, two large lattes sitting in front of her and her brow creased up as she concentrated on something on her phone.

“Hi,” Sana said, coming to sit down and taking the coffee nearest to her sit with a grateful smile and adding a, “Thanks!”

“Oh good. You’re here,” Chris said, looking up with a no nonsense expression on her face.

Sana’s eyebrows rose and she said, “I am. Is everything okay?”

“Yep. I’ve actually just managed to finalise the list for you.”

“List?” she queried, confused.

“Of guys I found who might be a suitable date to Eva’s wedding.”

“Oh! That!”

“You still want a date, right?”

“Uh...yeah...not any more.”

Chris looked up then, her eyes narrowed as she took in Sana’s clearly guilty expression. “Are you telling me that you found someone and forgot to tell me or that you’ve decided to just go single anyway?”

Sana scrunched up her nose. “Well, technically Elias found him and it was three days ago.”

“Seriously?!”

“Sorry. I meant to tell you. It’s just school is kicking my ass right now.”

“Hmmm,” Chris said, but her expression cleared. That was the best thing about having Chris as your best friend. She could never get mad at you for too long even if she’d ended up putting together a list of eligible guys to take to a wedding that was no longer actually needed. “Okay, well give me the details then. Who is he?”

“An old friend of my brother’s who has just moved back to Oslo.”

“Cute?”

“I don’t actually know,” Sana said honestly. “I haven’t seen him for a decade.”

However, she couldn’t help but think about how attractive he’d sounded down the phone. He’d been good looking at fifteen and unless something drastic had happened to alter that, she was sure he’d grown up to be really gorgeous. Since the phone call three days ago, there had been a permanent kaleidoscope of butterflies residing in her stomach and fluttering about in anticipation at the prospect of seeing Yousef again.

“You’re bringing a guy and you don’t even know if he’s cute.”

Sana tilted her head. “Hey! Stop being shallow. He’s doing me a favour.”

“Yeah, which is really nice of him, but, man, he needs to be hot at the same time. At least tell me he was cute when you knew him!”

A small smile spread across her face as she thought back to how cute Yousef had been at fifteen and how smitten she’d been with him.

Chris laughed. “A ha! Your expression tells me that he was a hottie when you were kids.”

“He was cute,” she admitted. “But like at fifteen.”

“Did little Sana have a crush on him?”

“I totally had a crush on him. I thought I was going to marry him and was so mad when he moved away.”

“Awww that’s sweet. So are you meeting before the wedding?”

“Yeah, we’re getting coffee on Friday.”

Chris clapped her hands excitedly. “A date?”

“Come on,” Sana said, unimpressed. “We can’t meet for the first time on the way to the wedding! It’s a totally normal meet-up between friends.”

She ignored the part of her brain that was already mentally picking out an outfit for Friday. Giving in to that around Chris was a dangerous thing. Both of them would have Sana believing that she and Yousef were actually dating.

“Yeah, if don’t consider that you haven’t seen him since you were a kid, that you had a massive crush on him and that he’s agreed to be your fake date for a wedding.”

Sana pursed her lips disapprovingly but she couldn’t actually contest anything Chris was saying and had to reluctantly agree that her friend had a point. 

“Hey,” Chris said with a cheeky smirk on her face. “Maybe it won’t be a fake date by the time the wedding rolls around!”

The only response Sana had for that was to wad up a paper napkin and throw it at her friend’s head.

However, Chris just batted it away and said with a cheeky grin, “Let’s check out your brother’s social media and see if he has any pictures of Yousef on them. I want to see the boy who had little Sana crushing hard.”

“I’m not stalking my brother’s social media,” she protested, but she was already unlocking her phone. 

Bringing up Elias’ Facebook page, she scrolled through the first couple of pictures and then stopped at one that had him with his arm slung around Yousef. Sana couldn’t help but stare as she realised that Yousef was even more attractive than she remembered. Not surprising considering he was now twenty-five with broad shoulders and a sharp jawline that framed his face nicely. He was far too gorgeous to be taking a fake girlfriend to a wedding rather than a real one.

“You’re drooling,” Chris remarked. “That means he’s hot, right?

Wordlessly, Sana passed the phone over. 

“Fucking hell!” Chris exclaimed. “Girl, you better lock this guy down.”

All she could think was how she’d daydreamed about marrying him when she young and her twelve year old self had had great instincts.

\----------

 

Yousef was surprisingly nervous about meeting up with Sana. She’d sent him the address for a coffee shop close to her university and asked if he didn’t mind coming down there as she had an hour in between classes free. He didn’t of course.

He got there ten minutes early and grabbed a table close to the back. He didn’t get a coffee straight away, instead waiting for her to show up so he could get hers at the same time. When he had last seen Sana she didn’t even drink coffee, so he had no way of anticipating her order and asking Elias would just open him up a week’s worth of mockery. So he pulled out his phone and scrolled through instagram as he waited. 

“Yousef?” a soft voice enquired a few minutes later.

Lifting his head from his phone, a small smile already on his face as he opened his mouth to say hi to Sana, he stopped, stared and felt his eyes widen. 

Instead of the young girl from his memory, Yousef was faced with a gorgeous young woman who he was completely unprepared for. She was wearing a dark pink hijab that brought out the depths of her dark brown eyes and complimented her warm fawn coloured skin. There a polite smile on her face that didn’t reveal the dimples he knew she had but was radiant anyway.  Then there was her rose pink lipstick made her lips look impossibly soft. She was so beautiful that he was struck dumb and could only stare at her mutely.

As the silence dragged on, Sana’s smile deepened, bringing out her glorious dimples and she tilted her head a little and observed him with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. 

“You are Yousef, right? Or his brother? You look too much like him to be anything other than a relative.”

Shaking his head a little, Yousef went to rise and winced as his chair scraped back noisily, making other people close to them look up in startled alarm. “Er...yeah...er, I’m Yousef,” he said, stumbling over his words as if he was still fifteen and faced with an impossibly attractive girl. 

“Hey,” she said, her eyes crinkling up at the corner. “Long time no see.”

All he could think to say was that he wished he’d seen her earlier so he settled for nodding his head a little weakly and probably looking even more incoherent in her presence than he had done already. Therefore, he went to sit down and then looked up confused as she continued to stand. 

“What do you want to drink?” Sana asked.

“Oh!” he said, remembering that they didn’t have coffee and that he’d planned to buy hers and standing once more, jogging the table perilously as he got to his feet and nearly knocking his phone off and onto the floor. “I’ll get the drinks.”

Sana let out a little laugh and said, “Don’t worry. I’ll get them. You’re doing me the favour, remember? Plus, I’m worried the drinks wouldn’t make it here safely if you get them.”

There was no malice to her teasing tone but he wanted to curl up and die anyway. He was making such a bad impression that he wouldn’t be surprised if she cancelled the idea of taking him as his date. Who wanted to take someone so clumsy with them to a wedding?

“What do you want?”

“Oh, a cappuccino would be great,” he said, at least making it to the end of the sentence without stuttering over his words or causing a commotion. He’d take that as a win.

“Great,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

He watched as Sana weaved her way through the tables and up to the counter with grace and felt like banging his head on the table. Why didn’t Elias have pictures of Sana on his Facebook? Then he might not have been taken aback by her beauty and would have been more coherent. Not this shambles he currently was who could barely string two words together and was apparently a danger to all objects around him.

“Pull it together, Acar”, he muttered under his breath and at least got to observe her as she waited in line and order their drinks. 

When Sana returned, had placed their drinks on the table and was seated, Yousef smiled and said, “Sorry about earlier. I’m not usually in such a daze.”

“Yeah?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.

“I was taken by surprise that’s all?”

Sana tilted her head. “Surprise?”

“It makes no sense, but I was picturing you in my head as a twelve year old still so I wasn’t really prepared for adult Sana,” he said sheepishly, running his hand through his hair.

Her dimples popped out again and her shoulders shook as she laughed. “I can see how that would be confusing. I made sure I checked out Elias’ instagram before coming today so I knew who I was looking for.”

“Smart,” he said letting a small amount of admiration creep into his voice. “Then again, you always were the smartest Bakkoush.”

“I was?”

“Yeah, I remember you saving our asses more than once when it came to science or maths. Elias always had these amazing flashcards that he tried to make out where his, but I was never fooled.”

Her grin got even wider as she said, “Yeah, he used to pay me for those.”

“Well, you saved all our grades with those cards so a belated thanks is in order.”

“If you come to this wedding then I’ll consider us even.”

“How come you don’t already have a date?”

“What do you mean?” she asked a little sharply.

Not backing down, Yousef decided to say what had been on his mind since she called his name fifteen minutes earlier. “It’s hard to believe that such a beautiful girl doesn’t already have someone she can take with her. Is everyone in Oslo so stupid as not to be fighting to take you?”

Her eyes flew to his and then quickly dropped down to her coffee, which she gripped tightly between her hands. His heart pounded heavily in his chest and he wondered if he’d gone too  far. Had he been a little too honest by how much she’d blown him away He cursed himself for being so forward in his head. He wasn’t usually like this, but there was something about Sana that had him throwing caution to the wind. 

Then she raised her eyes to his again with a shy expression that was made even softer by the rosy colour in her cheeks and he found himself taking a sip of coffee to stop himself from reaching out to brush a finger down her face. He’d never been so affected by a girl before.

“You know, I had the biggest crush on you when we were kids,” she said quietly. “All I wanted was to hear you say something like that to me, but instead you moved away and I was heartbroken for months.” 

Deciding to take the small opening, Yousef asked, “Am I ten years too late to be saying such things to you?”

She observed him steadily and then smiled once more and said, “Not necessarily. I could potentially rekindle that crush.”

He laughed then and said, “How about I take you out for dinner and see if I can help make that happen.”

Narrowing her eyes, Sana obviously pretended to think about it, looking adorably mischievous as she tilted her head and looked up at him. “If you stick around for another two hours then I’m finished for the day. I know a really good Lebanese restaurant ten minutes from campus.”

“It’s a date,” he said, smiling warmly at her and thanking whichever friends of hers where getting married and had given him this opportunity. “An actual date.”

“I’d like that,” she said.


End file.
